LINK Ignores Drive Specification Searching for Libraries

 Last reviewed: July 17, 1997
Article ID: Q66699
5.0x 5.1x 5.30 5.31.009 5.50 | 5.01.21 5.03 5.05 5.10 5.11 5.13 
MS-DOS                       | OS/2
kbtool

The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft LINK for MS-DOS, versions 5.0x, 5.1x, 5.3, 5.31.009, 5.5, and 5.6
  • Microsoft LINK for OS/2, versions 5.01.21, 5.03, 5.05, 5.1, 5.11, and 5.13

SUMMARY

A library name can be embedded into an object module (.OBJ) for LINK to use when searching to resolve external references. This library name can either be the library name itself or the full path to the library. In the case of a full path to the library, LINK does not use the drive specifier.

MORE INFORMATION

If a drive specifier is present in a library name embedded in an .OBJ, it is intentionally ignored by the linker. This is done to provide compatibility with older compilers that automatically attached the drive letter to all library records. Therefore, if a library is not located on the default drive, LINK will prompt for its location.

For example, with Visual C++ version 1.0 or 1.5, the #pragma comment command is used to specify the library. If the following line is used 

   #pragma comment (lib, "E:\\MSVC\\LIB\\GRAPHICS.LIB")
the compiler will add a COMENT record to the .OBJ instructing LINK to search the MSVC\LIB subdirectory for the library GRAPHICS.LIB. If the current default drive happens to be drive C, then LINK will search drive C for the MSVC\LIB directory. When the library and/or path is not found, it will prompt for the path to the library.

Additional reference words: kbinf 5.01.21 5.03 5.05 5.10 5.11 5.13 5.30
5.31.009 5.50 5.60
KBCategory: kbtool
KBSubcategory: LinkIss
Keywords : kb16bitonly

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Last reviewed: July 17, 1997
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